Black Charisma

He saunders
strolls between rough and regal
seersuckered but not a sucker
unless his lips are
behind my ear

speaking something like conscious objection
and poetry
multisyllables of masculine magnitude
not married to the game
just thinking

about why marriage has merit
and why I melt
into his cadence
his misogynoir
his ironic

pursuits of politics and polygamy
having me hold his place
folded over my arm
fresh pressed
placid, and paid for

with a bite of sleeping beauty's apple
Blaming Eve, me
for GMO seed, systemic injustice
and front lining my body
for us

gathering in open spaces
parading past each other
like distant cousins
at the family reunion
and call it community

Other Side of the Moon

Galvanized and gathered
Parks become platforms
people and purpose converge
and color is no longer monolithic
it's who we are

in between the history and hustle
I didn't sit. I stood
signed ancestors names in chalk
unmistakeable mohawk
parlaying

proving my existence adjacent to
and contextually black
but I am hellish red
burnt umber
tasting tongues behind the bathroom

laughing up pineapple spit
we shared
before the storm decided
I was way too hot
to stay

and touch that earth
with little more than poetry
Nigerian remixes
and a hunger too great for black
dollars

Black August in a Park

Heat sits
legs spread wide open
inhaling what little cool comes in August
lawn chairs, old blankets, and hats
layered between the sun and this skin of mine.

Comfort is the context right now
close enough to earth to smell
far enough not to feel 
the assumptive is support somewhere
between gravity and a good time

Wrinkled light,
yellow layers kiss my thighs
fall between my breasts
dripping like the sweat
it absorbs

breathable
cotton 
dressing me 
beyond function
beyond construction

Buildings become shadows
casting memories and demanding my presence
in new places, old spaces
where I used to almost thrive
my foundations were here but I wasn't living.